HUNDREDS OF HOMEOWNERS across the country had their properties repossessed between April and June after they fell into mortgage arrears with their lender.

Ten years to the month after the Government decided to guarantee Irish banks, tens of thousands of people are still feeling the brunt of the mortgage crisis.

Latest figures from the Central Bank revealed that the homes of 343 residential mortgage-holders were repossessed during the second quarter of the year.

A total of 245 principal dwellings were taken into possession by lenders during the quarter, although this was down from 321 for the first three months of the year.

Meanwhile, a further 98 buy-to-let properties were also repossessed by lenders during the quarter, 25 of which were taken on foot of a court order.

A further 47 principal dwellings and buy-to-let properties were taken into possession by non-bank entities between April and June, up from 43 properties for the previous three months.

The Central Bank also revealed that there were 87,796 accounts in mortgage arrears at the end of June, with 63,402 – or almost three-quarters – of those accounts in arrears for more than 90 days.

Earlier this year, there were calls for the government to protect homeowners whose mortgages had been sold to vulture funds after Permanent TSB announced the sale of 10,700 “non-performing” to an affiliate of the so-called vulture fund Lone Star.

Fianna Fáil’s finance spokesman Michael McGrath said the silence from Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe on the issue was “deafening”, and called on him to act.